


After a day in the sea.

by VathySkotadi



Category: VA-11 Hall-A (Video Game)
Genre: Drunken Confessions, Gen, Internal Monologue, Not a Lot Going On, Post-Ending, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21818179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VathySkotadi/pseuds/VathySkotadi
Summary: Dana and Jill come back from a day at the sea during their vacation at Panama. They go out to grab a bite and Jill gets drunk, which leads to some thoughtless words and to a thoughtful Dana.Not (completely) romantic. Just some exploration of Dana as a character, or as I see her.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	After a day in the sea.

“I’m hot,” Dana complained as she entered the room and turned on the lights. She regretted her decision to wear her shirt over her swimsuit.

“Boss, we were just at the shore,” Jill said behind her, closing the door. Dana had kind of given up on telling Jill not to call her ‘boss’ some time ago. It was already engrained in her system. “We can go back, if you want.”

Dana went straight to the fridge and fetched one of the canned beers they’d saved for the night. She popped it open, took a long gulp, and sighed in satisfaction. “Nonsense. The sea can be dangerous at night, Jill. High tide is not to be taken lightly,” Dana warned.

Their little shared room, which was what they’d gotten for these vacations, was nice. It was barely big enough for the two of them, but it had a king-sized bed, a small fridge they could use to save drinks they had bought at an exorbitant price, and a small closet to put stuff that would remain empty because it wasn’t worth to take things out of their suitcases. They’d only be staying here a couple nights before moving on to their next stop, which Dana had decided would be Mexico. Some spicy food would do her good.

Jill dropped on the bed, still wearing her black bikini, and undid her pigtails. “You speak as if you had experience with it.”

Dana closed her eyes. “It’s a long story, Jill.”

The black haired girl looked at her with her usual expression of whenever Dana hinted at her past. Truth was, since she’d realized how Jill reacted, Dana liked to sometimes pretend there was more to a story than there really was, only to tease her. However, when Dana didn’t continue, Jill had to take it and accept she wouldn’t be getting any more. “If you’re hot, we can turn on the AC,” Jill said, moving over to grab the remote.

Dana didn’t complain. She _was_ hot. A thing about being so close to the equator was that no matter the time of year, it was unusual for it to be too cold. Diana drank some more beer and left it on top of the small desk the room offered, taking off her shirt and showing only her single-piece swimsuit. There had been some clear disappointment in Jill’s eyes when she’d seen she wouldn’t be wearing a bikini, but Dana preferred it this way.

“Today was fun, eh?” Dana said.

Jill’s expression got a little twisted. “Uhm, yeah,” she said.

Dana chuckled. “The sea was a little brave, I know.”

“A little? I got tossed around like a doll whenever I got in,” Jill complained. Then she proceeded to show some scratches she’d gotten after falling. They were red, but any cuts she had had stopped bleeding long ago.

“Those must have hurt,” Dana said.

“Like hell,” Jill confirmed. “The salt didn’t help. They’re mostly fine now, though they still sting a little,” she said with a bit of an annoyed face.

Chuckling again, Dana grabbed her beer and downed the rest of it in one go, then took a look at Jill’s injuries. She had one in her arm, other in her knee, and one in the back of her hand. “You need more balance. You don’t do enough exercise.”

“I mean, walking to my new job is certainly a good enough exercise…” Jill said, looking at the ceiling with some sadness. Dana pressed her lips. The closure of Va-11 Hall-A was still a touchy subject. Not only for Jill, to be fair, but Dana wanted the week they were about to spend on vacation to be memorable, and not because of sad things.

“Here,” she said, taking Jill’s left hand and pressing its back to her lips. As expected, Jill’s face instantly shred away its melancholy as a coat of red grew outwards from her cheeks. “Hope that makes it better.”

“Uhm… Yeah, I…” Jill was really cute when she was left without words. Dana almost regretted having to let go of her hand before she took it the wrong way. Standing again, Dana went to the window and looked outside. The sun would set soon, though sadly, the sea faced North here, so there would be no magical sunset reflected on the ocean surface.

“What do you want to eat tonight, Jill?” Dana asked, turning and looking at her ex employee, who looked like she was still processing the small kiss.

“Uhm, whatever is fine. Have you been here before, Boss? What do you recommend?” Jill asked after composing herself somewhat.

“I guess Sancocho could be nice, though it’s a little hot for soups. Oh, there’s a BTC bar nearby, if you’re interested,” Dana said.

“Why would I want to go to a place that’s gonna be the same as the bar I work in every night?”

“Fair point,” Diana nodded. “They do have a special cocktail here: The Ron Ponche. It’s the national cocktail. I thought you may be interested.” Dana eyed Jill, who indeed now looked much more interested. “Of course, we can probably get a less… _artificial_ version of it at a restaurant.”

Jill thought about it for a second. “I guess I don’t really care what we eat, as long as it doesn’t upset my stomach too much.”

Dana raised an eyebrow. “Are you implying what I think you’re implying?”

“Yes, Boss: Nothing too weird. You almost killed me yesterday,” Jill grimaced, probably remembering the night she spent at the toilet. Dana wasn’t sure what had gotten Jill into such a state. Seafood was always a good bet when on vacation near the sea, right?

Still, she nodded. “Well then, I think I got a good idea. You’re ok with meat, right?”

“Like, a steak?” Jill asked with some skepticism. Dana didn’t think it was fair Jill was _that_ wary of the food. It was, after all, not her fault she’d gotten sick. Not fully, at the very least.

“Yeah,” Dana nodded. She’d looked up places to eat nearby, so she already knew where they’d be going. “Though first I’m gonna shower and make sure to take all the salt off my body.”

“You really take care of your skin, don’t you?”

“Can’t be badass if I look like I’m eighty years old.”

“As far as I know, you may be…” Jill said with a hint of bitterness. Dana simply smiled at her as she got into the bathroom, already looking forward to dinner.

“Jill, we’re here,” Dana said as she opened the door to their room, again. Only, this time, she carried the weight of a very drunk woman on her back. Not that she minded too much – Jill was light, in comparison to other things she’d carried – but the issue was that Jill kept trying to squirm out of the piggyback ride when she could barely stand. Dana would have preferred a princess carry, but she was aware that Jill would have probably been unable to take it.

“Finally,” Jill said in a slightly slurred voice. Between the amount of Ropa Vieja they’d eaten, the Ron Ponche and the beer, the bartender had to be at her limit. Dana carried her to bed and dropped her there, fully expecting her to simply curl up and fall asleep.

As she went to the bathroom and prepared to go to bed herself, she considered undressing Jill. Dana knew Jill didn’t really like sleeping fully clothed, but… well, a t-shirt and a short wasn’t fully clothed, was it? Totally not.

She came out of the bathroom and was surprised to find Jill with her eyes wide open in bed, laying on her side and looking at Dana’s side of it. The bed had only a single bedsheet for cover, and they’d only use it because the AC left the room cold enough to be slightly uncomfortable once they were asleep. Jill, however, hadn’t bothered to get under it, though she had managed to get rid of her shorts. Her slender figure, admittedly, drew Dana’s eyes, but she didn’t stare at it for too long.

Dana changed and got into bed without much fanfare, and was ready to go to sleep when she felt a slight tug in her hair.

“Is it natural, Boss?” Jill asked.

“Yes, it is,” Dana said with a sigh. “It’s not that unusual nowadays, is it?”

“No, no… I just thought it looked really nice on you,” Jill said with a smile

Dana sighed. It wasn’t the first time she dealt with a drunk Jill, but she had certainly never before gotten _this_ drunk. “We should probably sleep. We’ve got a day full of sea tomorrow too.”

“Yeah, I know…” Jill yawned, closing her eyes. “Hey, Boss.”

“Yeah?”

“I really like you,” Jill said in a weaker voice.

Naturally, Dana already knew that. Jill wasn’t exactly subtle about it. Still, hearing her say it out loud was an unexpected development. “… thank you,” Dana said, though Jill wasn’t listening anymore.

As tired as she was, now Dana found herself unable to sleep. She stared at the ceiling, fairly certain that Jill wouldn’t even remember her confession tomorrow morning. Not that that stopped her from thinking about it. She’d known about Jill’s attraction for a long time now, but she’d always pretended not to notice. Not that Jill wasn’t cute or anything, but… For Dana, it was hard to imagine intimacy with her. Jill had her number of personal quirks, and Dana wasn’t too sure about how compatible she was with those. Seeing each other at work – or, after the closing of the bar, at weekends – was completely different from being a couple.

Being intimate, liking someone, _loving_ someone was… serious business. A kind of serious Dana didn’t have the stomach to handle anymore. She’d never been too good at romance, but she liked her friendship with Jill and was in no hurry to aim for more. With all the shit she’d seen in her life, she was fully aware Jill could find someone far better than her to fall for. Plus, now she also took care of Gaby like every other day, and while Dana didn’t mind kids, Gaby was far too smart for having such a small body, and it made her ever so slightly uncomfortable. A thirteen year old girl shouldn’t be talking that fancy, in her opinion.

Eyeing Jill, Dana tried to imagine herself kissing her. While some semblance of enjoyment would certainly come from it, she wasn’t… excited about the idea. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t help but feel it’d only end up hurting them both. Jill, because Dana wouldn’t be able to take it seriously. Dana, because she wouldn’t bear to see the hurt in Jill’s expression.

Plus… why had Jill even fallen for her? Probably because she saw her as a cool senpai, as the boss and bouncer of Va-11 Hall-A and someone she felt safe with. Was it really a romantic love, or was it simply admiration? Dana didn’t know. She _couldn’t_ know, and she had the feeling Jill didn’t know either.

Rolling in bed, she came face to face with the now profoundly sleep girl. From a purely technical standpoint, Jill _was_ beautiful. Though, if Dana had to put it into words, she would go for cute. Jill acted tough and had a stare that could kill, but she also laughed at penis innuendos and talked with herself while pretending to be her cat. That also seemed somewhat represented in her usual work outfit. The serious suit of a bartender, yet mixed with that couple of pigtails that seemed to take years off her. She was a good listener and had a good chunk of wonderful friends – from Titty hacker to the dog duo – and most important, she was a good person. Kind, sensible, honest, and caring. Dana knew a lot of people, but she could count with her fingers those who she actually considered friends – and Jill was among them, along with Gillian.

Maybe out of some curiosity, Dana reached forward with her arm, touching Jill’s cheek. The black haired girl – well, woman, though it was hard to not think of Jill as a ‘girl’ when she was in such a vulnerable state – twitched slightly at the cold touch of Dana’s metal arm.

Dana simply brushed Jill’s cheek, admiring – mostly platonically – how the moonlight shined through the window, hitting her face from behind and covering her in a mysterious shadow. She then took back her arm and looked at it, opening and closing her fist and hearing the ever so faint sound of the metal clinking as she did so. Sometimes, she used that arm to remind herself that she wasn’t exactly like everyone else – and it went beyond it being a prosthetic arm. No, a lot of people wore those, nowadays.

With a sigh, she decided she’d done enough soul searching for the night. Covering herself with the bed sheet, she turned to look at the wall and closed her eyes.

When Jill woke up next morning, she groaned.

Dana smiled and handed her a pill and some water. “Here, for the hangover,” she said in a low voice.

Jill took it without pause and groaned again. “Why did I drink so much? I haven’t had a hangover this bad since I was a teenager,” she complained. “I… don’t really remember a lot of what happened last night. I didn’t…?”

“Do anything stupid?” Dana put her back to the wall and looked as Jill cringed at the light entering through the window. “No, not _too_ stupid, though I did carry you back in my back, and you stumbled a couple times when we were getting out of the restaurant.”

Jill remained silent for a moment. She was clearly trying to go through her memories of the prior night, so Dana let her do it without interruption.

It was when her face got all red that Dana felt a sudden spike of panic. She… She couldn’t remember, could she? But… With how drunk and tired she was, she…

However, when Jill raised her hand to look at the spot Dana had kissed, Dana relaxed. “Those scraps feeling any better?” she asked.

“Y-yeah,” Jill said, standing with another grimace and trying her best to walk with her eyes closed. “I need a shower,” she claimed. “You need to use the bathroom, Boss?”

“Not for now, no. Go ahead,” Dana said, smiling as Jill stumbled around and grunted at the pain in her head. When she disappeared into the bathroom, Dana finally moved from her spot and took a deep breath. Pumped up, she began preparing their lunch for today. She looked forward to wrestling with the crashing waves all day, even if she’d have to take off her arm because the saltwater risked ruining it.

And she looked forward to spending the next week having fun with Jill.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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